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Proposals: Software Law, Intellectual Property Law

One proposal is a subset of the other. They target similar communities. There is no room for both proposals.

I don't see any point in having a site specifically about software law and not IP law in general. So, unless there's motivated opposition, please merge Merge Software Law into Intellectual Property Law.

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What about the other law proposal area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/24586/laws-legal-questions ? Why not make one big Law site? – TheLQ Aug 3 '11 at 21:25
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@TheLQ They're different issues. I consider merging SL and IPL a no-brainer. A single law site would be huge given the variety of domains and jurisdictions; I'd be weakly for it but it's more debatable. – Gilles Aug 3 '11 at 21:55
I dunno, with as slowly as these proposals have been moving I'd expect a single site would be the only way for it to survive. And wouldn't SL and IPL have the same jurisdiction problems? Domains would be the only thing to worry about, but that's needed to keep the site alive – TheLQ Aug 3 '11 at 22:52
@TheLQ I've raised the issue with a community coordinator, there's currently no merge process: to merge SL into IPL, SL has to be closed and the people who have committed to SL must re-commit to IPL. There are more commitments to SL, but IPL makes much more sense as a site topic to me. – Gilles Aug 3 '11 at 23:15
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@TheLQ My concern with a single law site is that it might be too broad; a single field of law (e.g. family law, IP law, …) may be a better size, or law in a given country. The problem with law in a given country is dealing with international matters (which are especially complex, as “get a lawyer” is particularly costly and difficult). An “international law” site doesn't feel right either, you'd need expert from all over the world there anyway. – Gilles Aug 3 '11 at 23:19
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I second your proposal, it would help a quicker commit. Currently IP law is at 7 %. – abel Aug 16 '11 at 21:09
I just wanted to add that I completely agree with this proposal. It should be intellectual property law as an umbrella. I don't think that "Law" should be the overarching category as there is not a huge amount of overlap between civil and common law systems. The reason intellectual property law makes the most sense is that there is movement through the World Intellectual Property Organization to normalize IP rights/laws the world over. – ihtkwot Jan 27 at 14:58
-1 see my (opinionated) answer. – g33kz0r May 3 at 7:09
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4 Answers

up vote 10 down vote

YES !

That's what tags are for.

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up vote 2 down vote

No. (I voted yes and am putting this here to measure the nays.)

Edit: I added this because not everyone has the rep to cast downvotes (atleast on SO) so I added this to capture the nays.

So please:
Upvote this answer if you think the sites should remain seperate.
Do nothing here but upvote the "YES!" answer if you think any combination of them should be merged.
Downvote this answer if you think this is a bad answer (or want to undo a downvote which would be kind of weak IMO)

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I think the upvotes on the request, the single downvote and the absence of a “no” answer were enough signs of consensus, but ok, -1 from me. – Gilles May 2 at 20:10
@Gilles, LOL! that's what I get for not being clear/asking for a negavite. See my edits and change your vote if applicable. – dFlat May 2 at 20:52
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up vote 0 down vote

Yes and no.

I generally agree that IP law mostly encapsulates software law. However, there are some Software Law areas not covered by IP law, namely export control, which is regulatory law, and licensing, which is mostly state contract law. Additionally, there are plenty of IP law areas not covered by Software Law, namely ANDA litigation and trademarks.

Therefore, while I agree that Software Law should probably not exist on its own, I would want an Intellectual Property Law site to be expansive enough to cover all Software Law topics. It's probably fine if the additional non-Software Law topics are covered on an IP law site, I have a feeling they will be a small minority.

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up vote -2 down vote

Disclosure: I am an attorney. "Intellectual property" != "patent" != "copyright" != "trademark != "trade secret". Liability issues aside, if SO is going to start adding law-themed sites, then those sites should be named according to the legal functions they describe. Go pick up a law book if you don't know what to name something.

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I am not an attorney, and I don't understand what you're trying to say here. Are you suggesting that patents, copyrights, trade marks and trade secrets should all be discussed on different sites? That's far too specific; it's not even clear that the right way to go isn't a single law site. – Gilles May 3 at 10:09
@Gilles That is exactly what I am saying. It's not too specific -- they in some ways similar but ultimately distinct legal concepts. Including them on one site together would be similar to dumping admiralty law and commercial law into one big heap. – g33kz0r May 3 at 14:08
Distinct legal concepts don't need to be discussed on different sites! There's a single Mathematics site, not one for arithmetic and one for differential geometry and one for complex analysis. There's a single programming site, not one per programming language. Typically the right size for a site is an academic department. – Gilles May 3 at 20:29
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